250 yards is a respectable carry distance

[Leftygolfer]

People do overestimate there distance that is for sure. I believe to be good you have to know what you can do so you can be smart about the lines you pick and the clubs you choose. If I am on a 165 yard par 3 with water right in front of the green, sure I could hit a 7 and if i pure it it's the right club. I rather hit the 6 or maybe 5. A 3 on a tough hole or even 4 is ok. This game is played between your ears.

[ssrs8]

I have played a lot of golf the past 3 years with a GPS. I have played with all types of people at both a privately owned country club and some municipals. I can count on my hands the number of times I have seen a someone average 275+ during a round. Either 250 carry is respectable or Maryland is especially populated with players with slow swing speed.

[saevel25]

250+ is really good... Average Pro golfer hits it 288-290 with roll. That means they carry it probably 265 to 275 average.

My drive carries about 285-290. But everyone else i play with, i can only count on my hand people who matched my length off the tee. One plays in my golf league.

[Crey23]

250 is whimpy....I can carry 450 on an off day

On a serious note....I am averaging now 245, my longest ever was 279, with roll and a very slight downhill. In South Fl, there are no hills so courses are mostly flat.

There is something to be said about drivers though...the 279 was hit with a counterfeit TM Burner, so I can't speak for the credentials of the specs. My 245 average is highly influeced by my previous drive TM r7 CBG Max, which I averaged about 230, with a ling ball of 245!!! With my current driver I am hitting from 220's to the 260's, most of them in the 40/50 range. Yesterday I hit my longest with my current driver of 267.

Distance off the tee, IMHO, is a penile extension for most players....the longer the driver the manlier they are or something along those lines.... I find it quite funny when playing with work colleagues that they boast super low HC and smashing drives by the water cooler, but come really short on the course. I played with a guy who teed off 4 times, (1 OB and 2 to the water H), made it to green, and posted a par on his card!!!!!! He had the balls to me he played in the 90's .... I guess he meant Mullys not shots

[sean_miller]

This is from the center of the tee, to the center of the green.

I suppose there are a lot of people who would actually estimate yardage that way. I'd find the surveyed distance marker (present on every local course I can think of), pace the yardage to the tee markers, then add or subtract yardage accordingly.

Even if the centre to centre distance was essentially correct, that isn't necessarily how far the drive went off the tee. The distance the ball travelled could be longer if it's not straight down the middle or taking the same path to the hole that was used for the survey. For example, when playing a dogleg par 4, a 240 yard drive might be right at the nearest 150 yard marker, while a 270 yard drive on the long side of the fairway also leaves a 150 yard shot to the centre of the green. A rangefinder is really the best way to go.

[mdl]

You're a 15 handicap, there's no way you can drive it as far as the tour pros. You can post a video of your swing, but I can guarantee you the tour pros who are swinging it 120 mph with perfect technique and perfectly fitted drivers are not somehow magically hitting it just as long as you. We can try to believe that somehow it's only short game that separates us, but that's a laugh. Sure, it's fun to believe, but it's just not true.

I don't have a GPS, so I'm willing to believe that even on the straight holes, the distance markers are off and my total driving distance is 5-10 yards less than I think. But I measure my distances from the stones at the tees, so it's not like I'm thinking if I hit it halfway between the 100 yd sticks and the 150 sticks on a dead straight par 4 that's 400 from the tips, but 350 from where I teed off, that I hit it 275 instead of 225. That still puts me at 260-270 average total distance. Some of my buddies do have GPS, and at the the courses we play regularly, none of them have stones that claim distances more than 5-10 yards different than what the GPS usually says.

And when I say average drive, clearly with a double digit handicap and a being a long hitter, I mean average of my drives that not mishits, snap hooks and far right pushes and whatnot. That's probably 1/2 my drives. I struggle with consistency on all my shots and have yet to put together a consistent driving day with a consisten short game and putting day. That's why I'm double digits. I just don't understand everyone's derision and disbelief. How many 6'2", 205, former college baseball players who have turned seriously to golf do you know who really are only capable of hitting it 230 on a non-mishit? My best golf buddy is maybe 5'10" and not particularly built, but I've seen him put drives without huge wind help that were absolutely no doubt 300 yards total. Yes, the literally mean golfer probably has a mean drive of less than 200 yards, but I refuse to believe that the players on cheap courses in LA are that much longer than players everywhere else, and I've played with many (note that doesn't mean most, or even a particularly high percentage, but still many) golfers who average 240+ total distance on the non-mishits, when measured using just the distance stones on the tee box and the markers on the fairway.

[JetFan1983]

IMO being able to carry it 228 yards is respectable. You're doing something decent if you're doing that.

[bunkerputt]

A rangefinder is really the best way to go.

Assuming the range finder has an elevation feature, I'd have to agree. I've got a GPS and it just does straight-line-distance. If I didn't pay attention to elevation on shots in the Tx hill country I'd have several 200 yard 7-irons followed by some 120 yard 4-irons. Elevation and wind make a HUGE difference in how long a shot plays.

[sean_miller]

Assuming the range finder has an elevation feature, I'd have to agree. I've got a GPS and it just does straight-line-distance. If I didn't pay attention to elevation on shots in the Tx hill country I'd have several 200 yard 7-irons followed by some 120 yard 4-irons. Elevation and wind make a HUGE difference in how long a shot plays.

Does the elevation really change the measured distance? I assumed a ball goes farther downhill than it does uphill. Most courses feature shots in both directions, so it should all even out - no?

[taxpayor]

I am not the longest of drivers, but , like so many others, I do swing very hard on the last half dozen or so balls from the bucket at the range. Last year I flew it past the 250 sign a total of 3 times.

[Shanks A Million]

And when I say average drive, clearly with a double digit handicap and a being a long hitter,

Do you even read this?

Average is not "average of non-mishits." If we are claiming that, well heck, I drive it 280, maybe more. But that is a fantasy. We're talking average, not average good one. I swing the club 110 mph, which means I could drive it nearly 300 yards on average, but I'm not good enough to hit the center of the face on every shot. In golf, consistency is all that really matters. I have probably hit a miracle shot or two that rivals any shot ever hit by Tiger, so can I beat him? Hell no! The difference is that he can do it every time. To be able to regularly carry the ball 250 yards is quite good. A young man with a fast swing can knock one or two out there a long way, but that's not even relevant. I can take a bucket of balls out to the chipping green, and chip maybe 1 in 20 in from most locations. Should I count only that one chip and say, "I chip it in the hole from anywhere, no big deal." No. I'm a good chipper, but not that good. In golf, you get one try, and you have to live with the results. That's why golf is so hard; once the wheel is set in motion, it cannot be stopped.

[mdl]

Do you even read this?

I didn't say I'm counting my best drive every other round. The 1 in 20 of my practice chips thing is such a straw man.

I said that the drives where I don't hit a clear mis-hit average 270-280. You don't like my defining my average that way. Fine. Maybe with the pushes and hooks in there my average goes down to 250 or so. I wrote what I wrote cause it seems to me like everyone here is derisive of anyone who claims on this forum that the average of even the best half of their drives is 275. There's all these derisive comments about how people who think they can drive it 250 really drive it 175. It's just so silly. Yes, the average golfer is inconsistent, and if you include the every single drive, the mean goes down. But the impression I get from you and many others on this thread is that you sit at your computer and sneer when someone claims their solid drives go 280. To put it another way, when someone asks you how far you drive the ball, do you tell them your true mean, or do you tell them about how far you expect the ball to go when you set up at the tee expecting a solid shot? I'd say I hit that drive that I want maybe 1/2 the time, maybe a bit more. You've got a much better handicap, maybe you do that 80-90% of the time (I'm talking solid, not fairway percentage). But if you expect your drive to go 250 when you set up on the tee box, but if you include your mishits your true mean is 235 (maybe your mishits are nasty short duck hooks), when someone asks you how far you drive it, do you say 250 or 235? I'd say 250, and I wouldn't feel dishonest about it. In person I might add a postscript that I'm not super consistent, but I'd still say 250.

[soon_tourpro]

Tiger was beaten by a guy that was twice his age and hit the ball 250 yards by 17 shots in 2 rounds.
allan doyle.

most people overestimate their driver distance, and add 50 yard extra.

[soloredd]

All that matters is the number you put on the scorecard.

[Shanks A Million]

I didn't say I'm counting my best drive every other round. The 1 in 20 of my practice chips thing is such a straw man.

Just because I can catch it solid and hit it that far doesn't mean that's my stock driver distance. Even so, the driving distance on the PGA tour is extreme, it's the average of the 150 best players on the face of the earth, using drivers precisely fit for their swings, with a ball fit to their swing. These are guys who hit a golf ball for a living, and they have the best swings in the world. They spend a huge amount of time training, working, and tweaking every part of their games. For people to assume they can hit it that far is simply asinine.

I would like to see a video of your swing.

[RC]

Golf channel today, Shell Houston Open: Announcer describing a fine pro drive, "Swing speed was 112 mph and the carry was 256 yards." If you can carry a true 250 yards without wind or elevation help, you are hitting a long way compared to the majority of golfers. Of course that was followed by Phil Mickelson who is really long -- he hit it 292 yards in the air but got almost no roll, maybe a true 300 yard drive. He is a monster with the driver.

[Shanks A Million]

Golf channel today, Shell Houston Open: Announcer describing a fine pro drive, "Swing speed was 112 mph and the carry was 256 yards." If you can carry a true 250 yards without wind or elevation help, you are hitting a long way compared to the majority of golfers. Of course that was followed by Phil Mickelson who is really long -- he hit it 292 yards in the air but got almost no roll, maybe a true 300 yard drive. He is a monster with the driver.

Exactly. This is something most people fail to realize. Mickelson swings the club over 120 mph. I don't know anyone, no matter how young or athletic, who can even come close to mashing the ball on the center of the face at 120 mph. 112 mph, 256 yards... Yet I swing 110, and I carry an

average of 236 yards, but somehow, people tell me I should be hitting it farther? That's crazy. Remember, these tour pros hit their 6 irons often over 200 yards, and land them softly enough to stop them on rock hard greens. Who out there who thinks they drive it 300 yards can do that? I notice that you too have an X flex, mid launch, low spin driver. Assuming like me, you hit the ball with a fairly high swing speed, and are fairly honest, and have a good enough swing to carry a 2.5 handicap, that you drive it a good distance, maybe 260s or more. If you do drive it that far, that's a great average, good enough to win any major. A 15 handicap claiming to drive it 280-300, that's just insane, unless he lives on top of a mountain with a strong tailwind.

[sean_miller]

. . . 15 handicap claiming to drive it 280-300, that's just insane, unless he lives on top of a mountain with a strong tailwind.

I've played with a few long ball hitters in my day. Some are low handicappers, but many aren't. A lot of ex-hockey or baseball players (who can generate a lot of bat speed or take either a good wrist shot or snap shot) can really pound a golf ball - that doesn't mean much the nearer they get to the green.

There are a few local long drive competitors who drive 350+ (not necessarily on average - but quite often). I've never played an 18 hole round with any of those guys, but I've heard from a couple of sources that they struggle to break 90 - on a good day.